The Hornets fell agonisingly short of automatic promotion yesterday, going down to a late Leeds winner when a victory would have sent them into the Barclays Premier League at the expense of Hull.

Instead a semi-final meeting with sixth-placed Leicester awaits, with the first leg at the King Power Stadium on Thursday.

Watford have beaten Leicester twice this season, though, including a 2-1 away win last month.

But Hornets chief Zola said: "It will be tough. They are a team we have already faced twice and we know the quality they have. They know us, we know them. We'll go there and play our game.

"Before the game the players knew the possible scenarios. We will be ready to start again on Monday.

"The players were very tired at the end of the match, they had given everything. It's been tough but we will come back.

"The expectations have grown this season as we have grown in stature but you have to face that if you want to be a top team."

Zola is hoping goalkeeper Manuel Almunia will shake off the tight hamstring which kept him out of yesterday's match and had such a bearing on the outcome.

Jonathan Bond was drafted in to replace Almunia following the warm-up but his afternoon ended after 22 minutes when he was carried off with a broken nose.

That meant a professional debut for 19-year-old Jack Bonham, but the understandably nervous academy keeper was culpable as goals from Dominic Poleon and Ross McCormack, either side of Almen Abdi's fine curler, sealed Leeds' 2-1 win.

Readers' Comments

I

t's wrong to be making a joke out of Bender's name at the expense of gay people. It's the kind of childish, uncivilised thing that Football365 would deride and ridicule if it was another media outlet saying. Why is there a need for jokes like this? Does it make your writers feel like men? F365 might suggest that I 'lighten up', but it is genuinely traumatic for people who have been oppressed all their lives to be the butt of jokes, and to be told...

ou can't blame De Gea for wanting to leave, he has enough to do in front of goal as it is as well as taking on the role of Man Utd's version of Derek Acorah in trying to contact and organise a defence that isn't there.